MELAKA, Jan 16 — The Chinese government is offering 1,000 more scholarships to Malaysian post-Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students to undergo training in that country, said Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The deputy prime minister said selected students would be sent to China for between three months and one year to undergo training in various fields under a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"The Chinese government will fully finance the courses, including accommodation and other expenses. This is a good offer and these places will be distributed among existing TVET institutions.

"They ask for students to bear only their airfares, and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) will pay for the return air tickets of our TVET students,” he said.

He told reporters this after launching the Place & Train UTeM@KPT TVET programme at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) in Durian Tunggal here today.

He also said the scholarships would be distributed among the Malaysian Technical University Network so that all would benefit.

He said students would attend training in new technological fields like artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles (EV), cyber security and battery.

In his speech, Ahmad Zahid, who is also TVET Council Committee chairman, said the country’s TVET ecosystem was very complex.

Therefore, it required good management and strong political will from all ministers involved in the National TVET Council (MTVET) to make it a key catalyst for spurring the country’s socio-economy.

"TVET will strengthen our country to tackle issues in terms of manpower usage from other countries,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid said the government and educational institutions should focus on certain fields in line with current technological advancements so that the country would not be left behind.

"We should know that society previously viewed TVET as second class, (but) insya-Allah with the offer of premium salary and added value, I am confident TVET will be a preference for secondary school students in the future.

"I hope we can move forward together to venture into new fields like aerospace, shipbuilding, rail technology, robotics and cyber security,” he said. — Bernama